What's in a name? (Acts 10:14-15)

The people close to me know that I put a lot of time and thought into naming things. In middle school, my best friend created a rule when we were playing video games where you could name the characters. I had to use the default names the first time playing through the game. Otherwise I would sit there for a good 10 minutes trying to come up with the perfect name. And it took me longer to think when he was yelling at me to pick faster.

Changing the name of this blog was no exception. On my first day of brainstorming names I was drawn to one of my favorite chapters in Acts 10. I’m quite the fan of trying ridiculous foods and I like to point to this verse when explaining why Christians don’t have to be kosher. On my trip to Israel, we visited the city of Joppa which is place where Peter had his culinary vision. That’s when I really began to appreciate this verse as it truly applied to us gentiles. This was the moment when God explicitly tells Peter that the gospel is not just for Jews. So let me get this straight… everlasting life and unlimited dinner selection? WIN-WIN! After a little bit of fiddling I pieced together the concise, alliterative, and pseudo-oxymoronic name “Pious Picnic.” My first thought was “meh, I can do better than that.” I fiddled with more ideas for a couple days, but the more “Pious Picnic” lingered in my mind the better it got.

pi▪ous [PAHY-uh s]adjective, having or showing a dutiful spirit of reverence for God or an earnest wish to fulfill religious obligations.

pic▪nic [PIK-nik] noun, an excursion or outing in which the participants carry food with them and share a meal in the open air.

The combination of pious and picnic provides the perfect mixture of spirituality and fun and that’s perfectly aligned with where we’re going. I’m starting to get rather attached to the new name.

MISCONCEPTION CORRECTION: If you find it sacrilegious for an apostle to be playing Frisbee with his halo, it’s important to note that halos are not mentioned in the Bible. Although one translation does use the word halo only once in Ezekiel 1:28, I consider this usage synonymous with “radiance.” In that regard there are multiple mentions of people with a supernatural radiance such as Exodus 34:35 and Matthew 17:2, but I would argue these instances are a different concept than the traditional halo defined as “a shiny disk above your head.” Also halos are not specific to Christianity. For example, a similar concept appears prior to the New Testament in Egyptian hieroglyphs and is also mentioned in the writings of Homer. The halo is merely an artistic representation to indicate a culturally important person ranging from holy figures to rulers to heroes. Besides Peter is throwing his own halo so it’s not bad manners.


If you also define pious as being full of pie: